What is developmental editing?
Picture a garden. Make it an ornamental garden rather than the more utilitarian (but still beautiful) vegetable garden. A beautiful magnolia anchors one corner, flanked by a bed of roses, salvias, lambs’ ears, and some seasonal cora vinca. Crepe myrtles and abelia provide structure. A stone fountain provides some visual and textual interest, and a stone path winds its way through the yard, guiding the observer gently from one area to another. The garden is somehow both interesting and serene, not so much a perfect reflection of nature but an idealized version of it.
Perhaps you’ve tried to create a garden like this, even just a flower bed along the front of the house or a curated array of pots on the porch. But somehow it doesn’t look quite like you envisioned. The crepe myrtles look weedy rather than sculptural, the salvias are crowding out the ornamental grasses, and the roses just aren’t thriving. It’s got potential! If only you had the time, the energy, the CAD software.
In cases such as these, a gardener or landscape architect might be summoned to bring order and beauty to this series of disconnected vignettes. The gardener might recommend some strategic pruning for the crepe myrtle to encourage the canopy to spread allongé. A row of precise boxwoods would offset the gentle movement of the ornamental grasses, and let’s move the salvias forward a few feet. We’ll repeat the arrangement on the opposite side of the yard as well to provide some balance and reinforce the theme.
In much the same way, a developmental editor works to bring order, coherence, and beauty to a piece of writing. She locates the central argument or idea buried in the piece, disinters it, and creates a structure in which that argument can grow and flourish, accumulating detail and complexity, perhaps suggesting a bit of rearrangement or pruning as the situation requires. She examines the evidence currently supporting and illustrating the argument, and notes where it might be bolstered to shore up any weaknesses. Depending on the piece (and the editor) she might also note whether stylistic changes might better serve the ideas. The goal, ultimately, is not so much to rip everything out and start over, but to ensure that the argument is displayed to its best advantage for whatever potential audience(s) the author and editor envision.
Whereas copyediting and proofreading typically occur closer to the publication finish line, developmental editing might happen at almost any stage prior to this and thus might involve various types of feedback. A couple of examples drawn from life:
An early draft of an article with material from a conference paper and a separate draft comprised of an argument about related research
The author is unsure how to combine these two separate research projects into a single coherent argument. Because the research is at an early stage, the editor might make a series of recommendations. She might, for example:
Identify several potential thesis statements suggested by the draft so far
Recommend revisiting source texts to provide further evidence to illustrate and support central claims
Suggest refining the theoretical framework and interpretive methodology for the argument and more consistently apply that methodology to the arguments throughout
Recommend an organizational structure
Because the work is at such an early stage, the author might find a video consultation useful, either in lieu of or in addition to written feedback (more on this below). This would enable the author to share inchoate thoughts and ideas and ask questions about the piece’s possibilities.
A dissertation chapter the author plans to develop into an article
Because the piece was originally part of a larger argument, the piece needs to be revised for a particular scholarly venue. The editor might recommend the following changes:
Propose a revised thesis that centers the piece’s most original claim and subordinates the larger but vaguer argument
Note inconsistencies between the main argument and evidence and recommend steps for resolving this tension
Propose a revised outline for the piece to clarify the argument
Typically, the editor’s feedback is delivered through both an editing letter and comments on the text itself. The editing letter provides an overall summary of the piece and then delivers the editor’s observations of the piece’s current strengths and weaknesses. Accompanying the editing letter will be a copy of the draft with marginal comments that will provide more specific comments that supplement the advice in the editing letter. Again, these comments may or may not discuss mechanical issues for drafts in the early stages; they are more likely to note, for example, areas where analysis might be elaborated or more clearly linked back to the thesis, or where evidence is not doing quite what the author claims.
Unlike the gardener, who often imposes their own design and vision on the yard, the developmental editor takes care to preserve the author’s voice, ideas, and arguments. A good editor may will certainly suggest revisions to enhance and develop the argument, but the piece remains the author’s entirely and the editor’s hand should remain largely invisible in the finished work. We all know how difficult it can be to find clarity in the mind’s weedy thickets. The editor’s goal is to approach this overgrown space from a fresh perspective, clearing out the dead brush, pulling up the weeds, and revealing the beauty that was there all along.
